"Well, I admire your confidence, but do remember, an Imperial like the Creedless isn't someone you can take on with tricks, even if the playing field is equalized," The sect master warned.
"That's why I'll rely on your assistance if shit hits the fan," I replied.
"And you shall have it, but first, let's get you in shape, you said that you were interested in the Fist of Roaring Qi," the sect master said.
"Yes, I am," I replied.
"Then let me help you train," he said grinning.
"That would be greatly appreciated, but…" I said as I looked at my arms, "I don't think I have the proper build for it," I said.
"You mean your muscles? Indeed, you do look a bit skinny," he said.
I was clearly not skinny but compared to how bulked up he is, I might as well be.
"That's not something I can manage in such short notice and window of time. Seven days is not enough to build a proper body mass," I said.
"Hah! Not when I'm responsible, come with me, I'll take you to a secret place," the sect master said and began walking out of the palace.
I followed after him and soon he took flight.
The two of us moved through the skies and away from the Ancient Sect for a pretty long while, it took more than eight hours of constant flight before we arrived at a barren location that seemed slightly out of place.
Around us was nothing but open fields where natural grass grew, the density of Qi was low, it wouldn't be considered out of place but at the same time, it looked like a completely natural and inconspicuous terrain.
We came down and the sect master began looking around before he walked up to a simple stone on the ground.
It was the size of a child's fist and didn't seem that important, but once the sect master grabbed it, my eyes lit up as a disgustingly massive formation brightened up the entirety of the open terrain.
It was only for a second, but I could see the formation in that second and realized how utterly and completely complex it was.
"Wow, who made this formation?" I questioned.
"I have no idea, I stumbled upon this place by sheer luck when I was deciding to build my sect, at first, I thought of this as a good spot, but when I found this formation, I decided otherwise. I built my sect away from here for two reasons. First, not to draw attention to this area, and secondly, if my sect is built nearby no idiot will come looking around. I make sure that all the missions I send my disciples on avoiding this area completely just to keep it safe. And the simplicity of such a hidden in plain sight formation is great at protecting what's underneath," he said in one single breath.
Soon what hid beneath was unraveled to be a small hole on the ground. Moss grew around it and it looked like it could only fit one single person at a time.
If one were to realize that such a great formation was hiding nothing but a small hole where they'll clearly be surprised.
The sect master dove into the hole first and disappeared from sight. I followed after him.
The bottom of the hole wasn't that far and just as I got down I tried using my divine sense. However, I couldn't detect jack shit.
"As long as the formation is active, you cannot use divine sense on this area. If you use your divine sense from outside the formation will alter your sight and make you see nothing but dirt. While if you use it from inside you'll be completely blind," the sect master said and raised his hand creating a small light of pure Saint Qi.
The light gave us our sight back and we were able to see what lays around us.
It was a small tunnel that one would need to slowly walk through due to how narrow it is.
There didn't seem to be anything special about this place, but I knew if such a spot was hidden by such an incredibly dense and complex formation, there had to be a reason.
The two of us moved forward for a pretty long while until we arrived at what seemed to be the end of the tunnel.
There was some light coming from there and there was this incredibly sweet smell coming from the end.
The sect master moved himself to the side and revealed the end of the tunnel to be a small circular room with a single stalactite protruding from the center of the room.
Underneath the stalactite was a naturally shaped caving that looked like a bowl.
And within the bowl made caving was white liquid, there wasn't much most likely nothing more than enough to fill a simple cup worth of the white liquid.
The sect master smiled, "Good, there was enough harvest this century, this should be enough."
He then moved his hand and the entirety of the liquid gathered in a small spherical globe.
He pulled outa gourd and filled it with the liquid and handed it to me.
"Sit down, and drink this," he said.
My modern mind had me thinking of all sorts of unsanitary things… don't drink the stuff from the ground, especially if they're a hundred years old. But the sect master seemed to cherish this thing.
I sat down and did as I was told. And my god was this thing delicious.
I emptied the gourd the moment it touched my mouth and I wanted more.
"What is this?"
"That's Stone Aged Milk," the sect master said smiling.
My mind went reeling as I heard the name of such a thing.
It came in brief passing through one of the Poison God's book's mentions of ungodly powerful solutions. There exist a few natural treasures that can make clans and sects wage eternal wars over. And this thing was one of them, because not only is it stupidly rare. But because it can cure almost all illnesses, rejuvenate the body, increase life span, restore youth, and could outright bring anyone from the brink of death to the peak of health.
"This…" I said shuddering as my hand was shaking on the bottle, what I drank was pretty much more expensive than an entire planet.
"How do you like the taste," the sect master grinned.
"This… is too much, not even for me, old man, are you crazy, there is a limit to generosity, this is absurdly too much!" I said.
"Hah, it's not enough to repay your father's kindness, but I hope it is a bit in the path of doing so. Ling Cao, I still have many things to give you, so this is but a start."
My heart felt like it was wrenched out of its place. Because, this man, the sect master was this kind, to the kid who owned this body, and I was nothing but a parasite possessing it. Even if all of this is fake…this sucks.
I clasped my hands and said, "Thank you, I hope I can repay this in the future," I said.
The sect master shook his head, "No need to thank me, Ling Cao, just live well, and improve yourself more, I want to see you reach the peak, just like your father tried to. Anyway, you should be feeling the effects of the Elixir soon enough," he said.
And just as he finished his words, I began feeling my body heating up.
Sweat began trickling down my forehead as I began feeling slightly suffocated.
"What's going on?"
"Your body, it's being rebuilt. You said you didn't have enough muscles, this is a cheat way to have you obtain the perfect body for Body Cultivation while at the same time not affecting your Poison Cultivation," he said.
"How… do you… know… I… cultivate… poison," I said as I was breathing harder and harder.
My mind was reeling as I couldn't even begin to think how painful this was since I was in so much pain I couldn't even feel pain.
"I'm not an idiot Ling Cao, I could see how you handled the Grizzly Spider's poison and judged that the way you managed to recover from the effects of those disgusting things was because you switched your entire cultivation to poison, I deemed that by doing so, you managed to kill off the parasite that was eating up your knowledge due to that poison," he said.
'Though that's not what happened, it does sound logical'
The sect master started pacing back and forth while I was in complete agony, on the ground.
"I thought of actually switching my whole sect to a poison sect when these things started attacking us, but when the Imperial Clan intervened I decided not to and go on with their plan to seal the main source of these things," he said.
He then stopped and looked at me, "You're pretty strong Ling Cao, the first time I drank that I was wracked in so much pain I kept going in and out of consciousness, but you seem capable enough to sustain it. You do not disappoint Ling Cao, I'm proud of you," he said smiling.
'Yeah, proud, my ass, I'm in so much pain it's taking literally everything I got just to keep conscious, if I were to lose consciousness here, I don't even dare think how many years I'll end up comatose for.'
Suddenly, the skin on my body began warping, and then tearing then repairing itself. Every muscle fiber I had on my body tore in half, then three grew from the stem, then these new three tore and three more grew from each. My muscle mass was abnormally growing and at this rate, I'll end up becoming a disgusting mass of muscles. But the fibers stopped breaking at one point and then began reinforcing themselves with even smaller more compact muscle fibers, my muscle mass didn't grow in size anymore but in density.
If I were to look even further using my divine sense, I'd see that my bones actually were also affected, they felt like they were being sheered and then reinforced back again.
Every joint I had broke, and repaired itself back reinforced with far more power than before.
This happened all over and soon, the pain began receding and receding eve moe.
Until I felt no pain.
I took one breath and then began a fit of vomiting far worse than any I've ever had, and I had plenty of those.
The sludge and scum that came out of my mouth were so foul even the sect master had to cover his nose.
"By the gods that smells…" he spoke as I was still vomiting.
And soon I stopped, and groggily stood up.
The simple fact of closing my fist caused a sound as loud as thunder to echo.
"Ah, perfect," he said. "Now you're ready," the sect master smiled as he looked at me.